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Red's Guide to Naming Your Cat
For the whole series, go here. I know many users have written guides like these, but I have some semi-unique tips and different views on things. Enjoy! Prologue Naming your cat can often be quite difficult, especially making a name to go with their character, or personality. In this guide, you will learn tips and pointers on how to name your cat, according to their powers, personality, or appearance. In this guide, you will explore the namings of Clan cats, ThunderClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan, WindClan, and SkyClan, loners, rogues, kittypets, Tribe cats, and even disabled cats. You will learn what names are good for cats...and what names aren't. You'll discover how to adapt cats' personalities to their names, or their names to their personalities, and likewise with appearances, disabilities, or powers. I hope you enjoy! Chapter One - Kittypets We'll start here with the easiest. Kittypets are by far the easiest cats to name, with a few exceptions which review later in the chapter. You can name kittypets almost anything, ranging from Apple, to Tommy, to Carpet, if you'd like. Kittypets know what most Twoleg objects are, so that won't be a problem. You won't have to worry that they don't know what a hammer is, or a wall, or a kitchen (though who would name their cat Kitchen?). You can start, however, with their personality. If a cat has a very peppy, bright, cheerful personality, then name them something that mirrors that. If a cat is always happy, then name them Bouncy or Tommy. Both sound like happy names, correct? You wouldn't want to name a cat with a personality like that Storm, or Inkblot, right? Likewise, you wouldn't want to name an eternally-glum cat something peppy. On to their appearances. If a cat is red, you could consider Apple, or another red item. Like I stated before, you don't want to name a cat something that contradicts their appearance, personality, disability, et cetra. Unless, of course, that's your point. Most kittypets don't have powers. However, if they do, it's not exactly easy to name them something that relates to their powers. As an example, if a cat could see into the future, you could call him or her 'Claire', which could be short for 'Clairvoyant'. If a kittypet could walk in other cats' dreams (like Jayfeather), you could name them Dream-Walker, but I wouldn't recommend it for a few reasons. First of all, their parents wouldn't know about their powers when they were born (which is often when they name their kit), unless they had received a prophecy about their little kit, which is also unlikely. Secondly, a kittypet probably wouldn't want to change their own names, because then they'd have two names - the one their Twolegs call them, and the one they named themselves, which can also be quite confusing if it isn't already. Naming your cat to their disability: this could actually be a possibility. Now, I know you probably wouldn't want to name your little kitty 'Blind' or 'Deaf' or 'Mute', because that would be rather mean as a Housefolk, or as a kit-mother. However, they could change their name, but that mide lead to another confusing story (see above paragraph). Also, as a sort of side-note, most kittypets are cheerful, rather clueless cats, with a few exceptions, like Firestar, or cats who have been to the 'Cutter'. Their names don't need to be intricate, or descriptive of their personalities, appearances, disabilities, or powers at all. Twoleg names often don't describe the Twolegs at all, so why should the same thing be with kittypets? Chapter Two - Loners This is a bit harder than naming kittypets for a few reasons. 1) Loners don't know about Twoleg objects like kitchens and carpets and hammers, so you can't name them after those objects, unless they used to be a kittypet. 2) They're not fluffy bunny-kittypets, they fend for themselves, but they're usually not extremely aggressive (unless they're like Sharplclaw) Loners often have names that either reflect their appearance or personality, or nature-names, like Mist or Soot. When naming your loner, it's important to keep in mind their pelt color. You wouldn't want to name an orange-y-gold loner 'Night' unless they had black eyes, or black paws, or black flecks, or a black tail or some bit of black on them that would resemble 'night'. Otherwise, your reader might get confused. :) You also don't want to name your loner something too fierce that borders on the naming of rogues, but nothing to soft that would border on the naming of kittypets. This is one of the reasons why they're difficult. Chapter Three - Rogues Perhaps the hardest of the group-less cats, because they normally don't have soft-sounding names at all. Of course, you do have to consider their background when naming them. For example, a runaway Clan cat, like Mapleshade. She kept her Clan name, so you have to take their backgrounds into account. Another example could be a runaway kittypet. They might keep their name, but they also might change it, like Tiny changed to Scourge. If they are a runaway kittypet, however, if they ran away to be aggressive - they probably won't want to keep their names, especially if they're soft. They'd want to drastically change their names, from Bunny to Wolf, as an example. :) A different background-change could be from loner to rogue. In this case, a cat would probably be born a loner, but would be aggressive or bitter, and change to a rogue. They could probably keep their name, if it was fierce enough for their rogue-ness. Another idea to consider is where the rogue lives. You probably shouldn't name them 'Tree' or 'Wind' if there aren't any trees or there isn't any wind where they live. Chapter Four - The Tribe Tribe kits are named on the first things their mothers see when they are born. No Tribe kits, however, have names like 'Ceiling of Cave' or 'Gold Fur on Kit'. Those do make sense, but not in the context. There are exceptions, though, that you can consider to make things easier. If you're writing about a Clan cat coming to the Tribe, they don't necessarily have to change their name. Also, if they are a loner, rogue, or kittypet and they join, they might not want ''to change their names too dramatically. Unless they have to. Take Millie, for example, and pretend she comes to the Tribe of Rushing Water, and wants to be a Tribe cat. She wants to change her name, but she also wants it to stay the same. This really isn't possible, because the Stoneteller wouldn't want to name her something that stays still resembles her name and a Tribe name. Tribe names completely reflect nature and their surroundings. Chapter Five - SkyClan I have greatly been looking forward to this chapter! Okay, so SkyClan cats' names are pretty much normal Clan names - Blackfur, Leafstar, Tinycloud, et cetra, right? But then there are the daylight warriors, who go home at night, and don't want their names to be too different than their kittypet names. I also wanted to write this chapter so I can criticize Leafstar's naming tactics. Harveymoon. Really? This is one of the things that you might be able to enjoy while writing about SkyClan and naming your cat. You can make them think about how horrible Leafstar was at naming them. :) It is probably best to figure out their backgrounds before naming them, however (as Arti said in her guide, I remember). Otherwise, it will be harder to name them, because you will be afraid that your name will sound to daylight-warrior. Chapter Six - The Lake Clans ThunderClan ThunderClan is brave, and they have lots of territory and a variety of prey, which equals many different naming opportunities. You can name them based on their appearances, their personalities, their powers, their disabilities, pretty much anything. Except for some things (which I'll get to in Chapter Eight). Naming a cat based on their appearance is probably easiest. All you have to do is decide their pelt color, then pick a nature-related object that has the same color, and use that as a prefix. Then, add the suffix ('pelt', 'fur', 'tail', 'belly', et cetra), and you've got your cat's name! You can also name them (by appearance) with a peculiar suffix. Take 'Soot' for example, for a gray-pelted cat. Then you can take a wacky suffix, and add it onto the end. Sootfrost! Sootbee! Sootshade! ShadowClan ShadowClan has a smaller variety of prey, but they eat a lot of stuff. You can name them by their appearances (see above), personalities, powers, disabilities, et cetra. ShadowClan's prey mainly consists of frogs, toads, sometimes crow-food (in the old Forest), the occasional woodland prey, some birds. So you can name them according to that. Toadfoot. Frogpelt. Birdtail. You get the gist of it, right? But ShadowClan cats are also commonly nasty. So you should name them something that sounds fierce, almost like a rogue name meets a normal Clan cat name, and they have a kit, and it is a ShadowClan name (I know, terrible analogy xD) WindClan Often, WindClan cats are named after their prey or their plants and herbs, or birds. Kestrel--, Heather--, Mallow--, Bark--, Hare--, et cetra. Most WindClan cats don't have the peculiar-name-suffixes, they just have normal suffixes, so it shouldn't be too hard to name them. Unless you want a very different cat. However, you do want to them according to their territory. By this, I don't mean specifically, name them 'Moordapple', but I mean ''don't ''name them 'Treeheart'. There aren't many trees on WindClan territory, or they are very sparse. Also, you're not likely to come across a WindClan cat with the name 'Bluefoot'. WindClan cats' pelts are very pale, so that they can blend into their territory. Tan, white, gray, black, all of those would work. I'm not saying that Bluefoot wouldn't be a good name, just that it might be a bit confusing as to which Clan your cat is from. :) RiverClan RiverClan cats' names are similar to WindClan - except they do have names like 'Bluefoot' or 'Silverheart'. They also have names with the prefixes mentioned above. RiverClan also has a different selection of prey - fish, such as pike, trout, minnows, and other fish. They have bigger animals too, that they don't eat, like otters or birds. They're also named after the geographical features, or different types of precipitation. For example, 'Frost', 'Hail', 'Rain', 'Storm', 'Mist' or 'Pebble', 'Stream', 'Moss', things like that. And then, you can pretty much add any suffix onto the end, but it does sort of have to make sense. Silverstream makes sense, right? She's a silvery-gray tabby, so there are streams of silver on her pelt. But then, take Snaketooth. 'Snake' is a very ShadowClan-sounding prefix, right? This cat is dark brown, and but he doesn't have teeth that look like snakes. It doesn't really make sense, but it works. This is how your names can be. Chapter Seven - Good Names Good names are ones that ''make sense. I won't criticize the bad names here - that will be in the next chapter. Just good names here. Silverstream makes sense - as I said before. Graystripe makes sense - his pelt is gray and he has a gray stripe running down his back. Let's see what happens when two cats with sense-making names have kits. Feathertail - Makes sense, it is said that she has a feathery tail. Stormfur - He has a pelt that is the color of a storm. Maybe this is some gene that cats have that we don't know about. Let's go on to look at Graystripe's other kits, and see if Graystripe is just magical that way. :) Blossomfall - When she was born, it was said that she had petal-shaped white patches on her tortoiseshell pelt. Petal = blossom. The petal-shaped things are tear-shaped, so it looks like they're falling down? A stretch, but it works well enough. Bumblestripe - He has stripes like a bumblebee. Enough said. Briarlight. She's tricky. This will be reviewed in Chapter Nine. Chapter Eight - Bad Names Goodness, I have been looking forward to this chapter as much as I had the SkyClan chapter! Bad names. They. Are. Everywhere. Just look on Roleplaying sites, and you'll find good examples of how not to name your cat. Don't name your cat excessively long names, like Nationalitypaw (I saw that one.) or Apocalypticpaw or Eternalpaw. Or Dreampaw. Those names honestly don't make sense. And what suffixes will you add to them? Nationalityfur? What, will this cat have the flags of the world on his/her fur? Apocalypticface? Will the cat's face explode of be golden when the rest of its body is black? Eternalmouth? Maybe for a cat that talks too much. Dreampaw? Dreamdream? Dreampelt? I don't know. Some of these names just don't make sense. I don't want to criticize those names, or the creators of those names, I would honestly maybe like Eternalpaw if it made sense with his or her pelt, or eyes, or personality, or something relevant. :) Chapter Nine - Disabled Cats I have seen this many times. A cat is turned blind. They're renamed Lostheart. Once again, I'm not criticizing anyone who does this, I'm just saying that it's not the cat's heart that is lost. It's their eyesight. Maybe Losteyes might work, but other users might say that doesn't sound very romantic. Another thing you don't want to do with renaming your disabled cats is make it sound too sad. Otherwise the cats will take too much pity on them, and they might end up being too goody-goody. Which, I take it, on here nobody likes. :) However, it must be taken into account, that in the Warriors books, characters aren't renamed unless they're close to death that it is almost certain they'll die. Like Brightheart/Lostface. Lostface related to her face...which was cruel, but, once again, it made sense. Epilogue I know I've probably restated most of what Arti and Foresty wrote in their's, but I liked writing this, and hope you didn't think I was too harsh. :) I hope you consider this when you name your cat, and that you maybe plan out their name as a kit. That might make it better, and then you can compare it to some other Warrior names (from the books) and see if it sounds right. I hope you enjoyed! --Red